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Ground Fire takes out four US helicoptersThe Guardian (UK)/AP
By SAMEER N. YACOUB
February 4, 2007

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The four U.S. helicopters that have crashed in Iraq since Jan. 20 were
apparently shot down, the chief American military spokesman said Sunday - the first time the U.S.
command has publicly acknowledged that the aircraft were lost to enemy fire.

Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told reporters that the investigations into the crashes of three
Army and one private helicopters are incomplete but "it does appear they were all the result of
some kind of anti-Iraqi ground fire that did bring those helicopters down."

"There's been an ongoing effort since we've been here to target our helicopters," Caldwell
said. "Based on what we have seen, we're already making adjustments in our tactics and techniques
and procedures as to how we employ our helicopters."

On Friday, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged that insurgent
ground fire in Iraq "has been more effective against our helicopters in the last couple of
weeks."

But Pace said it was unclear whether "this is some kind of new tactics or techniques that we
need to adjust to."

In the aftermath of the worst single bomb attack in Iraq since the start of the war - 137
people killed in a suicide truck bombing on a Shiite market - stunned Iraqis picked through the
rubble of devastated buildings and loaded coffins onto minivans.

The explosion Saturday was fifth major bombing in less than a month targeting predominantly
Shiite districts in Baghdad and the southern Shiite city of Hillah. It also was the worst in the
capital since a series of car bombs and mortars killed at least 215 people in the Shiite district
of Sadr City on Nov. 23.

Bandaged women, children and men filled hospital beds, while several bloodied bodies were piled
onto blankets on the floor of the morgue, which was filled to capacity. Minivans carried wooden
coffins to funerals.

The blast shaved the walls off nearby buildings, sending bricks, desks and other debris
spilling onto Kifah Street, where the Sadriyah market was located. Police used loudspeakers to ask
people to leave the area, fearing another suicide bomber could slip into the crowd. Shiite
militiamen prevented anyone from entering the emptied buildings.

"It is a tragedy. The terrorists want to punish the Iraqi people. There was no police or
American presence in this market yesterday," said Adnan Lafta, a 51-year-old seller of gas
cylinders.

The bombing came just days before American and Iraqi forces were expected to start an all-out
assault on Sunni and Shiite gunmen and bombers in the capital.

Only a day earlier, 16 American intelligence agencies made public a National Intelligence
Estimate that said conditions in Baghdad were perilous.

"Unless efforts to reverse these conditions show measurable progress ... in the coming 12 to 18
months, we assess that the overall security situation will continue to deteriorate," a
declassified synopsis of the report declared.

Suspicion fell on Sunni insurgents - al-Qaida in Iraq and allied groups in particular. The
militant bombers are believed to have stepped up their campaign against Shiites in the final days
before the joint U.S.-Iraqi crackdown in Baghdad. Many saw the operation as a last-chance effort
to clamp off violence that has turned the capital into a sectarian battleground.

In the hours after the explosion, Shiite and Sunni mortar teams traded fire across the darkened
city. Two people were killed and 20 wounded in one predominantly Sunni district.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the bombing was "an example of what the forces of evil
will do to intimidate the Iraqi people."

Maj. Gen. Jihad al-Jabiri of the Iraqi Interior Ministry said the truck had been packed with a
ton of explosives.

Iraqis elsewhere in Baghdad faced another round of bombings and shootings on Sunday, with at
least 22 people killed, including eight people who died in two car bombings.

Iraqi soldiers also detained 32 militants and discovered four weapons caches in western
Baghdad, seizing 1,128 mortar rounds, five rocket-propelled grenades, a rocket launcher, 50
anti-aircraft shells and other ammunition, according to the Defense Ministry.

An Iraqi militant group tied to al-Qaida in Iraq announced Saturday it had launched its own new
strategy to counter the coming U.S.-Iraqi crackdown.

In an audiotape posted on a Web site commonly used by the insurgents, a voice purported to be
that of Abu Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi, also known as Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, said the group would
"widen the circle of battles" beyond Baghdad to all of Iraq. Al-Baghdadi heads The Mujahedeen
Shura Council, an umbrella organization of insurgent groups in Iraq.

The U.S. military reported the deaths of five more soldiers - four in fighting and one of an
apparent heart attack. All died Friday.